Daily Lumina News 062920

As tens of millions of adults find themselves among the temporarily or longer-term unemployed, certifications represent a promising path back to work. These industry-recognized credentials, usually awarded based on an assessment of skills and knowledge, represent significant learning and have great value in employment markets.
Better yet, short-term credentials can be acquired quickly and usually represent skills in demand by businesses and other employers.

All across the nation, students with senior years truncated by the pandemic are feeling a sense of loss as they try to understand what exactly it means to be part of the Class of 2020.
But in New Orleans, some have dubbed this year’s graduates the “Katrina to Covid Class,” because their academic careers are book-ended by Hurricane Katrina and the pandemic.

As president of Park University, Greg Gunderson worries that students who decide to take a temporary break from their education won’t return. Instead, they may join the ranks of the 36 million Americans with some college, but no degree.
Rather than take a year off from their studies, Park University is encouraging students to take a different kind of gap year—one where they can continue their studies online from the safety of their home and possibly save some money on their education in the process.

As the 2019 college admissions scandal demonstrates, social inequalities and colleges’ pursuit of wealth and prestige often stack the deck in favor of the children of privilege.
Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, discusses how colleges are perpetuating the very inequalities they're to meant to mitigate in this interview.